GM-free nations fall to Monsanto

By Geoffrey Lean and Sue Branford

31 March 2002

Genetically modified foods are poised to slip back into
Britain after major advances by Monsanto in countries that have
so far refused to grow them.

Last week, India lifted a four-year ban on growing GM crops to
allow production of three bio-engineered types of cotton and
hinted that it will also give the go-ahead to GM foods such as
soya and corn.

And earlier this month, the Brazil's commission on GM foods
recommended the immediate authorisation of GM crops and foods,
despite a similar ban. The recommendation would particularly
benefit Monsanto, which has been lobbying hard for approval to
grow pesticide-resistant soya.

Brazil and India have been important sources for British and
European firms that have been forced to drop GM materials from
food and animal feeds. If bio-engineered crops now sweep through
the two countries, companies will find it hard to find non-GM
supplies.

Brazil, for example, is the world's second biggest producer of
soya. The first and third biggest, America and Argentina, already
grow GM varieties, and the three countries together account for
80 per cent of soya production.

Monsanto's victories are a blow for environmentalists who had
thought their success in turning consumers against GM foods in
Europe and Japan would have global repercussions. As consumers
refused to buy, the argument went, exporting countries would be
forced to grow GM-free crops in order to reach their markets.
Eventually even America would come under pressure to change
course.

Now environmentalists fear firms and supermarkets will be
forced to buy GM ingredients again, restricting choice to
consumers.

The blow is all the more bitter because their strategy had
seemed to be working. Over the past two years, Brazil has
increased its share of world soya trade from 24 to 36 per cent,
while the US share fell from 57 to 46 per cent.

As a result, many Brazilian farmers' leaders want to keep the
ban. "Three quarters of our exports go to countries that
don't accept GM," said Agide Meneguette, president of the
Farming Federation of Parana, the country's second largest
soya-producing state. "It is beginning to look foolish to
switch to GM crops."

The recommendation to lift the ban has yet to be approved by
the full parliament, but President Fernando Henrique Cardoso is
determined to push it through. Earlier this month, the anti-GM
environment minister, Jose Sarney Filho, resigned.

Monsanto refuses to comment beyond saying that it
"remained committed to bringing the benefits of
biotechnology to Brazilian farmers".